Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed a former federal civil rights prosecutor as his deputy mayor for homeland security and public safety, one of five top posts filled Monday as he continues to round out his staff. In addition to naming Maurice Suh to the public safety job, Villaraigosa tapped City Hall outsiders as deputy mayors for communications; energy and the environment; and legislative affairs.

Fourteen years after she was convicted of what may still be the largest welfare fraud in history, Dorothy Mae Woods was arrested Thursday on suspicion of another scheme to defraud the government--this time for allegedly garnering $89,000 in bogus tax refunds.

Seven Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies, accused of skimming more than $1.4 million during narcotics raids, were portrayed by a prosecutor Tuesday as corrupt officers who "turned the war on drugs into their own personal piggy banks" and used stolen drug cash for spending sprees. The officers--who worked together on an elite narcotics investigation team--stole huge sums of money from drug traffickers and money launderers to finance cars, boats, vacation homes and other luxuries, Assistant U.

The Rampart police corruption investigation has arisen from a premature death. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley reversed course after closing the book last month on the unfinished probe. His office will look at 60 additional cops referred by the Los Angeles Police Department, and criminal charges may be forthcoming.

Saying they want to empower their civilian watchdog, Los Angeles Police Commission members Tuesday approved a set of "work rules" by which their inspector general is supposed to operate. The rules, a significantly revised version of those that the commissioners took under consideration last week, define the inspector general's access to information and his ability to provide confidentiality to complainants, issues that have been hotly contested for three years.

There is a lot going on regarding the Los Angeles Police Department's corruption scandal. The City Council awaits Mayor Richard Riordan's signature on a federal consent decree that will govern sweeping reforms and appoint an outside monitor to ensure they are accomplished. The council is also set to approve Rampart-related legal settlements that will bring the direct payouts by taxpayers to about $13 million.

The Los Angeles City Council has made a dramatic and commendable shift toward real civilian control of the Police Department. For all the years of talk about police accountability to the public, the pending federal oversight of the LAPD holds the expectation that such talk will become action. Of course, this sort of shift has happened before, most notably after the Christopher Commission report of 1991, only to be buried by the culture of the LAPD.

Chief of Police Bernard C. Parks--under the gun for last year's jump in homicides, his handling of the Rampart Division investigation and dissatisfaction among rank-and-file officers for his refusal to back a compressed work schedule--held a town hall meeting with west San Fernando Valley residents Thursday evening. Parks was warmly greeted at Taft High School by about 150 people who expressed concerns ranging from unsolved murders to cars racing through residential streets.

Two assistant U.S. attorneys and a private attorney who is a law enforcement consultant are the three finalists for the Los Angeles Police Commission's inspector general position, sources confirmed Thursday. Assistant U.S. Attys. Jeffrey C. Eglash and Gregory W. Jessner and Palo Alto attorney Robert Aaronson were interviewed in private by the five-member Police Commission, which is expected to select the new civilian watchdog next week.

In a legal victory for federal prosecutors, an appellate court on Friday ruled that government attorneys can use evidence seized from the residences of two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies in their money-skimming trial. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a ruling by a federal judge who had determined that the seized evidence--which allegedly included nearly $16,000 in stolen cash--could not be admitted as evidence against deputies Nancy A. Brown and Michael J.